The
revolving door between corporate interests, water contractors and state
government swung open once again on Wednesday, September 18 when
Governor Jerry Brown appointed Laura King Moon of Woodland, a lobbyist
for the state’s water exporters, as chief deputy director of the
California Department of Water Resources (DWR).

Moon
has been a project manager for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan since
2011 while “on loan” from the State Water Contractors, a non-profit
association of 27 public agencies from Northern, Central and Southern
California that purchase water under contract from the California State
Water Project.

"This
appointment is just more of the fox guarding the hen house," said Tom
Stokely, Water Policy Analyst for the California Water Impact Network
(C-WIN). "We know whose interests she will represent - and it's not the
taxpayers of California."

"This
is just more of the same from the Brown administration, the Natural
Resources Agency and DWR," responded Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla,
Executive Director of Restore the Delta. "There is a revolving door of
water insiders whose political agenda has nothing to do with protecting
water, our state's most important resource."

The
Department of Water Resources in 2011 hired Moon, the Assistant General
Manager of the State Water Contractors from 2000 to 2011, to assist in
the completion of the controversial Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP)
to build the twin tunnels.

In
a letter to Assemblymember Jared Huffman on October 13, 2011, Natural
Resources Secretary John Laird attempted to explain the status of King
Moon, whose hiring by DWR drew fierce criticism from Delta residents,
fishermen, grassroots environmentalists and advocates of openness and
transparency in government.

“Ms.
Moon is working for the California Department of Water Resources,
serving on loan from the State Water Contractors until the completion of
the Bay Delta Conservation Plan,” said Laird. “She is responsible to
and represents DWR solely, and is subject to all DWR rules, protocols
and confidentiality agreements.”

Before
going to work for the State Water Contractors, Moon was director of
strategic planning at the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority
from 1997 to 1999, according to a statement from the Governor's Office.

She
was special assistant to the regional director at the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation from 1996 to 1997 and an environmental affairs officer at
the East Bay Municipal Water District from 1994 to 1995. Moon was senior
staff scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council from 1977 to
1994. She earned a Master of Science degree in energy and resources from
the University of California, Berkeley.

This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $161,676. Moon is a Democrat.

The
Governor's appointment of Laura King Moon as chief deputy director for
DWR is just one of many examples of the conflicts of interest and
corruption that define California water and environmental politics.

Just a few of the many examples of the revolving door between corporations and state government include:

•
The resignation of State Senator Michael J. Rubio in February, 2013 to
go work in a "government affairs" position for Chevron. Rubio, who was
leading the charge to weaken the landmark California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA) and make it more friendly to corporations, claimed he
resigned in order to spend more time with his family.

•
DWR's hiring of Susan Ramos "on loan" from the Westlands Water
District, the "Darth Vader" of California water politics, to serve as "a
liaison between all relevant parties" surrounding the Delta Habitat
Conservation and Conveyance Program (DHCCP) and provide "technical and
strategic assistance" to DWR.

Documents
obtained by this reporter under the California Public Records Act
revealed that Ramos, Deputy General Manager of the Westlands Water
District, was hired in an "inter-jurisdictional personal exchange
agreement" between the Department of Water Resources and Westlands Water
District from November 15, 2009 through December 31, 2010. The contract
was extended to run through December 31, 2011 and again to continue
through December 31, 2012.

•
The hijacking of "marine protection" in California by Catherine
Reheis-Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association
(WSPA). Reheis-Boyd chaired the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA)
Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create alleged "marine protected
areas" in Southern California and served on the task forces for the
Central Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast.

•
The failure of Katherine Hart Johns, Central Valley Regional Water
Quality Control Board member, to report her husband’s separate property
interest in his lobbying firm, California Resource Strategies, Inc., on
her 2006, 2007, and 2008 annual Statements of Economic Interests. The
California Fair Political Practices Commission fined Hart Johns only
$600 for this overt conflict of interest, in a classic example of how
violators of state ethics and environmental laws often get off with a
mere "slap on the wrist."

King
Moon's appointment takes place as the Brown administration is
fast-tracking the $54.1 billion Bay Delta Conservation Plan to build
twin tunnels to export water to corporate agribusiness interests
irrigating drainage-impaired land on the west side of the San Joaquin
Valley. The peripheral tunnels under the Delta will hasten the
extinction of Central Valley Chinook salmon and steelhead, Delta smelt,
longfin smelt, green sturgeon and fish species, as well as pose an
enormous threat to salmon and steelhead populations on the Trinity and
Klamath rivers.

Nobody
sums up the threat that the peripheral canal or tunnels present to the
state better than Caleen Sisk, Chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe.

“The
common people will pay for the canal, and a few people will make
millions,” said Sisk. “It will turn a once pristine water way into a
sewer pipe. It will be all bad for the fish, the ocean and the people of
California.”